Coronavirus live news: WHO reports record daily rise in infections with 230,000 new global cases

The government of Spain’s Catalonia region on Sunday ordered residents in and around the northeastern town of Lerida to go back into home confinement as cases of coronavirus spiked.

“The people must stay at home,” regional health official Alba Verges told a news conference.

The area, with a population of more than 200,000, was already ordered isolated from the rest of the region last weekend.

It marks the first time that Spaniards have been confined to their homes since the hard-hit country exited confinement on 21 June.

The move reimposes the strict conditions of its first confinement, which began in mid-March, allowing people in the affected area to leave their homes only to go to work, get medical treatment or purchase food and other necessities.

Gatherings of more than 10 people were also banned in and around Lerida.

Europe, still the most affected continent with 202,399 deaths from 2,828,270 cases, has seen a drastic drop in its daily number of new infections.

However more than 70 new coronavirus clusters have now been identified in Spain, with the area around Lerida concerning the authorities the most.

The authorities have said the fresh outbreaks are linked to the movement of seasonal agricultural workers, who travelled to northern Spain to work on the fruit harvest.

In Catalonia’s capital Barcelona, one hospital has recorded a jump in cases from 31 to 107 in the last week, according to the town hall.

Other clusters have been identified in the northwest regions of Galicia and the Basque country, were the country’s first regional elections since the onset of the pandemic were held on Sunday.

In Spain, mask-wearing is compulsory in closed public spaces as well as outside when it is not possible to maintain a social distance of one and a half metres.

But Catalonia strengthened its rules on Thursday, ordering masks to be worn even when the safety distance can be respected.

The Balearic archipelago will also strengthen its rules on the wearing of masks from Monday and other regions such as Andalusia and Aragon plan to follow suit.

However in the tourism hotspots of Catalonia and the Balearic islands, swimmers, sunbathers and people taking part in sport are exempt from wearing a mask, AFP reports.

A team of researchers from King’s College London has found that people who have recovered from Covid-19 may lose their immunity to the disease within months, according to research suggesting the virus could reinfect people year after year, like common colds.

My colleague Ian Sample reports.

In more night economy news, workers in French nightclubs and discos on Sunday protested in Paris to urge the government to allow their dance floors to get moving again, saying closure as a coronavirus precaution risks putting many out of business.

While much of life in France has now returned to a semblance of normality after the virus lockdown, the government is insisting that nightclubs and discos must stay closed for now.

Some 200 employees of the sector protested outside the health ministry in central Paris brandishing slogans like “all for the night” and “save the world of the night”.

Matthieu Lebrun, a spokesman for disco operators from Normandy, told AFP that half of France’s 1,600 nightclubs and discos risked disappearing if reopening was not allowed before September.

“We need a precise date,” he said, adding that nightclubs were ready to follow strict health conditions including requiring masks and social distancing.

Industry professionals argue it would be far better to let nightclubs reopen under strict regulation than letting people indulge in the unregulated outdoor parties with little social distancing that have been reported across France in recent days.

The government has said, however, that experience in other countries shows that nightclubs may be hubs for the transmission of infection.

Nightclubs and discos in Bulgaria will be allowed to reopen, the health ministry announced on Sunday, just three days after ordering all inside bars shut and despite a continuing rise in coronavirus cases in the country.

A health ministry order said that starting Monday all discos, piano bars, nightclubs and bars can reopen provided that they let in no more than one person per square metre in their inside and open-air spaces, AFP reports.

The venues were ordered shut on Thursday after a surge in infections with the novel coronavirus, with open-air places allowed to operate at half their usual capacity.

The ministry also lifted on Sunday a limit of 30 attendees at weddings, baptisms and school leavers’ celebrations held both outside and inside, provided that people keep a distance of 1.5 metres and observe strict disinfection rules.

Until recently, Bulgaria had weathered the coronavirus pandemic well, but easing lockdown measures before most other European countries and disregard for distancing measures and the wearing of masks, even if they are still obligatory inside, led to a surge in infections over the past several weeks.

From an average of about 30 new infections a day in early June, the country registered a record of 330 new infections on Friday, followed by 292 on Saturday and 211 on Sunday.

The total number of infections reached 7,175 on Sunday, including 267 deaths and 3,311 recovered.

Health officials meanwhile sounded the alarm over a rising number of patients needing hospital treatment and intensive care, and the risk of the virus spreading faster amid a wave of snowballing anti-government street protests in the capital, Sofia, this week that gathered thousands.

The World Health Organization (WHO) reported a record increase in global coronavirus cases on Sunday, with the total rising by 230,370 in 24 hours.

The biggest increases were from the United States, Brazil, India and South Africa, according to a daily report. The previous WHO record for new cases was 228,102 on 10 July.

Global deaths remain steady at about 5,000 a day.

Global coronavirus cases were approaching 13 million on Sunday, according to a Reuters tally. The disease has killed more than 565,000 people in seven months.

Lebanon has recorded a new infection high, as the health ministry said a total of 166 new cases had been confirmed in the last 24 hours.

A Lebanese waste management company is quarantining 133 Syrian workers who tested positive for the coronavirus, the company manager said on Sunday.

Lebanon has recorded more than 2,000 infections and 36 deaths from the coronavirus since February.

“The number will remain high this week,” health minister Hamad Hassan said.

“To reassure people, the source is known,” he added in comments to broadcaster LBC.

Most of the new cases were at what he described as “a big cleaning company”, an apparent reference to waste management firm RAMCO, which collects garbage across Lebanon.

RAMCO said it was moving infected workers to quarantine.

“We are separating those who are infected from those who aren’t … we are waiting for more results,” RAMCO manager Walid BouSaad told Reuters.

Hassan said 800 workers from the company in question needed testing, along with another 1,000 workers from two other companies with whom they were connected.

The United Kingdom’s death toll from confirmed cases of Covid-19 rose to 44,819, up 21 on the previous day, the government said on Sunday.

Bereaved relatives will start giving evidence in the so far only independent UK inquiry into the government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis on Monday, amid growing calls for a full independent investigation.

Families of those who have died will give their submissions in writing, via video call, or will arrange to do so in person to the new all-party parliamentary group for coronavirus, led by a cross-party group of MPs, my colleague Kate Proctor reports.

Coronavirus cases in the US state of Arizona rose by 2,537 to 122,467 in total on Sunday, marking the first increase below 3,000 new cases in over a week.

Covid-19 hospitalisations in Arizona have fallen to 3,432 as of Saturday, down from Friday’s record high of 3,485, according to the state health department.

But 89% of adult intensive care unit (ICU) beds are still in use in the state as of Saturday, unchanged from the previous day.

Governor Doug Ducey urged citizens on Twitter to keep respecting social distancing rules.

“Wear a mask. Stay physically distant. And remember you are safer at home,” he wrote.

The Naval Forces Central in Lapu-Lapu City in the Philippines is currently under lockdown after 77 of its personnel were confirmed to have caught the coronavirus disease, CNN Philippines reports.

The lockdown was implemented on 4 July and will be in effect until 14 July, according to the acting director of the naval public affairs office, Maria Christina Roxas.

Roxas said the 77 were among the 498 personnel who were tested for the virus through swab testing. She also noted that the majority of those infected were frontliners who were deployed in different quarantine checkpoints.

“The Philippine Navy through Naval Forces Central ensures that the camp will strictly implement the safety and health protocol within the camp,” she said.

Lapu-Lapu City, with a population of about half a million people, is in the Central Visayas region, which has the second highest number of Covid-19 cases nationwide, next to Metro Manila.

As of 12 July, the city logged 1,251 confirmed cases of the disease, with 309 recoveries and 31 deaths, based on data from the department of health regional office.

Central Visayas currently has 12,114 confirmed infections, around 22 percent of the national case count, which stands at over 54,000 as of 11 July in the country of more than 100 million people.

President Rodrigo Duterte imposed the world’s longest coronavirus lockdown on 15 March.

The US state of Florida has registered another grim record, and reports that new infections have risen by 15,300 in the 24 hours to Sunday to a total of 269,811.

This is the biggest daily increase in recorded coronavirus cases in the Sunshine State since the beginning of the pandemic, according to the state health department.

If Florida were a country, it would rank fourth in the world for the most new cases a day behind the United States, Brazil and India.

Its daily increases have already surpassed the highest daily tally reported by any European country during the height of the pandemic there, Reuters reports.

Florida has also broken New York State’s record of 12,847 new cases on 10 April when it was the epicenter of the US outbreak.

To combat the outbreak, Republican governor Ron DeSantis has ordered bars to close but has resisted calls for a statewide mandate to wear masks in public.

As we reported yesterday, DeSantis is pushing for the reopening of schools despite surging infections.

Popular with both American and international tourists, Florida is home to beach resorts and theme parks including Disney World, which reopened on Saturday.

I’m going to be handing the blog over to my colleague Jedidajah, who’ll be taking over the blog as I try to catch the last of the lovely sun we’re having in London today.

Thank you all for reading alone, especially to those who sent in tips and pointers. I hope you’re all safe and well and enjoy the rest of your day.